I would cull the list – you can obviously do this in your head by thinking about the features you would prefer, or you can make a spreadsheet to help you thin the herd.
Start with cost and also consider things like academic fit (majors/courses offered, curriculum, calendar, ease of entry into major, etc.), social/sports fit, housing and food (hey, ya gotta eat…), location/weather, etc.
Because Dartmouth and Penn are quite a bit different, as are Columbia and Brown. You may find you would prefer to be at an urban school with a core curriculum – boom, Columbia or UChicago… or with an open curriculum, Brown. There are so many ways these schools differ from one another.
You may decide that snow just isn’t in the cards for you – there goes the entire Ivy League. Or that you would like four seasons – bye bye Stanford and Caltech.
I think the OP can find both fit and the validation and reward of prestige. My Dartmouth/Columbia contrast may have been clunky or inartful, but it was meant to illustrate a theme. I did not see any preferences for the type of environment where he would like to live or study for a very important and formative time of his life. It seems that he will take that into consideration now, and I think he will benefit from defining all his priorities for this process.
I was just going to post this. The general guidance, if you are looking for merit scholarships, is to look a tier down from what you would normally consider. For you, that might mean expanding your list to T40.
Applications take a lot of time and students often burn out on the process. I would look at which schools appeal to you both academically and socially and put those at the top of your list. You can add some schools that you don’t feel are the best social fit or might be a Hail Mary financially (meaning that you would need a top scholarship in order to attend) because, come May, your interests and priorities may change. Just make sure that you have enough time to do your best on each application. You may be surprised when a school that wasn’t at the top of your list offers you a very generous package. Taking a second look at those schools is often worthwhile.
Just be aware the criteria for these opportunities is unique to the scholarship. For instance Robertson is not affiliated directly with Ruth UNC or Duke and self describes as follows…
“A community of leaders within Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, striving to make transformational contributions to society.”
And Notre Dame offers merit for a combination of scholarship and community service. You get nominated by admissions but then need to fill out an application and video.
If interested take a look and recognize that many if not all of these opportunities require separate applications that are unique and time consuming. You will need to start early and plan ahead.
As mentioned, many of these require additional essays and sometimes interviews. They also typically have earlier application deadlines or require you to apply EA. Some require a nomination by your school so discuss this with your counselor.
Start researching the schools and merit criteria now so you have time to craft your best application. Good luck!
While I don’t think evaluating for fit is ever a bad thing - I do see a consistent theme where multiple posters can’t begin to imagine how a student can like Brown and Columbia and then proceed to suggest Arizona State and University of Alabama for a student who suggested small/medium New England colleges. I find the - you only care about prestige vs fit disingenuous at best in those cases.
And it’s a good one: there’s more than a city/country divide between these two places: they have very distinct personalities. Can the same person be happy at both? sure- partly b/c we have more to do with making our own happiness than many people think. But- that should be a conscious choice, and the OP appears to be at the early stages of recognizing that.
OP, get a feel for both the personalities and the characteristics of the colleges you are interested in. The better the fit between you and the schools you apply to, the better for both acceptances and for enjoying the four years you spend there. Dream big- but focus the dream!
(& get the money straight first! many parents don’t realize what college costs compared to when they were coming through…)
Depends on the kid. Many can’t afford or have families who don’t want to afford the Ivies…they’ll say I’m not worried about finances for now which is the opposite of what one should do.
This student acknowledged that when I asked about budget and I expect him to return to the chat when he gets that determined so we can have further discussion.
Also many don’t realize the good fortune their hard work can provide.
So the top schools or special scholarships that some have noted will all have essays. And some heavy !!
Btw most that have merit…regular, not special, just award it off their regular app. But most aren’t Vandy or UVA level schools.
There are some schools like - and I don’t know about this year but my son got special apps from a bunch of schools including good ones like Col School of Mines and Minnesota that if you used their app - no essay required. I wonder though - do they see one taking the easy way and give less merit? No way to know.
The good news is - if top schools are showing you $20 or $40k, you’re highly likely to qualify for need based aid.
So now your list can be wide assuming your parents can afford to pay that $40k.
You might also look at fly in programs - some LACs and high level schools will bring in URMs and expose them to the schools.
You have a chance at some prestigious programs like the Johnson @ W&L and others mentioned like the Jefferson at UVA and programs at Vandy, WUSTL. I’m going to back off the words strong contender that I saw used - because these are typically a lot of work and I’m not sure anyone is a strong contender - ie earning these is likely harder than securing an Ivy League acceptance. And time wise you probably can’t pursue them all.
If you want no essay - you can get it and go to school for free or near free - but guess what - when you want to get into an Honors college at said flagship…you then will have to write an essay.
Some essays are unique. Others can be used many a time with minor tweaks.
Common app is open. Start loading, for example the us news top 10 and top 10 lacs. U can go see their essays and see if that’s too much or about right. Are there commonalities so I can use an essay over and over?
What’s great with common app is you can add and delete schools all the time. So it’s easy to preview them. It’s just that you can have 20 at once.
So let us know - are essays something you want to avoid ? If so we have to move from top 20.
Oh no I didn’t mean to come off as hating essays! I just was reluctant to have additional ones to write (scholarships) on top of the existing ones for specific schools and common app. Writing that many essays may get to be draining.
But now that I have a good sense of a budget, I may only apply to 1-2 merit scholarships (Robertson at Duke catched my eye as Duke was already on my list!) so essays shouldn’t be a problem.
As for the previous discussions on fit, I haven’t identified what I want, but have ruled out some that I don’t. (ex. Dartmouth due to location) But honestly, I’m not that picky on some of these factors like weather or curriculum and I feel that I could thrive in a multitude of places
Awesome. Look at those I’d say top 50 and see - can I be happy there. Because a Tufts for example wonderful school but not top 20. But you might be like wow. Or Rochester, Tulane or Brandeis.
Any sense of rural (is that why Dartmouth is out??) vs suburban or urban ? Racial make up ? Part of country etc. I personally love the Johnson. W&L awards 10% of students. which is amazing. They also have full tuition ones too (Johnson is full ride). And it’s just one essay.
I’d encourage you at any school of interest to see if you can get an African American ambassador if this is important to you - ie if u have concerns with being part of an underrepresented population on campus.
Edit. I missed the linguistics interest. It wasn’t on the best schools listed above but I’ve read several chats on the CC where people rate UMASS at the top nationwide in that area so if maybe in state or part of the New England tuition deal (don’t know your state) for you might be worth a look.
I have heard that Columbia is looking to expand its presence in linguistics. And I think your ECs make you a good fit there.
Have you had a chance to visit? If not I recommend it, if possible. I think you might like the school a lot.
Yep, all rural schools might be out of the running for me! I don’t mind suburban or urban though. Would like one of the coasts, East or West. Will def look at t50 lists and see if I can add any schools to target/reach list.
Btw state is MD, so my state flagship is UMD (which I honestly really like) but I might see how UMASS tuition treats me as I’ve also heard good things about their linguistics programs.
This is good. You have the affordability check and you are considering how many applications with supplemental essays you can reasonably take on to produce quality results. This appears to be helping you focus on what schools appeal to you most and what factors you care about in making those selections. You’ve got this!